Edition #13 of Early 80’s Floorfillers takes a look back to January 83.
You can see the Top 10, complete with label or record sleeve scans and individual track credits, here:
http://www.electrofunkroots.co.uk/greg-wilsons-top-10-floorfillers-jan-83/
Greg Wilson – January 2013
GREG WILSON’S EARLY 80’S FLOORFILLERS:
A fascinating insight on how the fading Jazz-Funk scene gave way to the emerging Electro-Funk movement in the early 80’s, ‘Greg Wilson’s Early 80’s Floorfillers’, marks the 30th anniversary of when these tracks first appeared. Compiled from his record lists of the time, and unfolding month by month, Greg Wilson counts down the Top 10 Floorfillers played at his venues during the key years of ’82 and ’83. Featured, most notably, on his Tuesday sessions at Wigan Pier and Wednesday gatherings at Legend in Manchester, the most cutting-edge weekly black music nights of the era, these were the clubs most associated with the evolving Electro-Funk sound.
The majority of music played on the black scene in the UK was initially only available on import, mainly out of New York during this period, with the club nights described as ‘upfront’, meaning that the DJ’s were way ahead of the curve – what they played now, others played later, or not at all. Without these DJ’s, many now classic dance tracks would never have become UK hits (many without enjoying similar crossover success in the US) – the reason they were released here in the first place was because these specialist DJ’s were breaking them via the underground.
Things would change in a big way during those 2 years; we were entering the hybrid age for dance music, and the oncoming House and Techno and Hip Hop directions would all owe a huge debt to this era of dance alchemy and groove experimentation.
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@grandadmaster-flash: It's something I've thought of doing but never got around to, so maybe this will spur me on. I've actually done an edit of 'Give Me', so it'd just be a matter of working 'Thug Rock' into that. I'm not sure if there was any legal action - 'Give Me' came first, but 'Thug Rock', remember, was very much an underground tune, so perhaps it wasn't worth the legal fees. Had it been a mainstream success I'm sure the lawyers would have been onto it straight away - as the saying goes, where there's a hit there's a writ.

@gregwilson: You should copyright that Thug Rock/Give Me mix; I've never heard anyone else do it, anywhere, then or since. Which one came first? I always wondered if there'd been any legal action involved, as they are basically the same backing track with different vocals

Totally been loving your whole series of early 80"s Floorfillers. Bringing music to me, that i just missed out on. Have done an edit of The Webboes, Under the Wear. If you have time, would love you to check it out.

@cousin-cole: You're not wrong there. The John Luango US Remix of 'Give Me' (I Level being a British act) just missed out on this month's top 10 (came in in 12th place). I used to mix between 'Thug Rock' and this mix of 'Give Me' at the time. Here's a YouTube clip for comparison, so others will know what we're on about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPMkjslzs70